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JORDANIAN PRIEST CALLS FOR JERUSALEM BISHOP'S RESIGNATION
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
5/28/2006
A priest working in the Diocese of Amman, Jordan, which is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem has called on the newly consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem to resign because he has compromised himself by aligning his diocese with the ultra-liberal bishop of Los Angeles J. Jon Bruno.
"Bishop Suheil Dawani has created a special relationship between the Diocese of Jerusalem and the Diocese of Los Angeles, whose Bishop, Jon Bruno, is teaching false doctrine and encouraging sexual immorality," said The Rev. Matt Walter, who heads the world's leading Arabic language training institute.
Walter said he appealed to Bishop Suheil in person and publicly before the Diocesan Convention of Jerusalem to cancel the companion diocesan relationship and to shun Bishop Bruno on the grounds that Bruno ordained an openly lesbian woman as a priest and because he blessed the marriage of a man to a man and voted for the consecration of an unrepentant and openly sodomite man as bishop (Gene Robinson) of New Hampshire, and has yet to repent of any of these actions.
"The companion diocese relationship between Jerusalem and Los Angeles was arranged by Bishop Suheil Dawani during a visit to the US during the summer of 2005, and although both Jon Bruno and Bishop Suheil have announced the relationship as official, it has yet to be approved or even voted on by the Convention of the Diocese of Jerusalem," said Walter in an e-mail to VOL.
"After I met with him in person and also publicly addressed the issue at the Diocesan Convention (with the support of other clergy), not only did Bishop Suheil proceed to encourage the companion diocese relationship with Los Angeles, but he invited Bishop Bruno to his installation as Bishop of Jerusalem and gave him a prominent role in the service, and declared that Jerusalem and Los Angeles were '"twin'" dioceses."
The installation service occurred on April 15, 2007.
Walter said he met with Bishop Suheil April 21st and again asked him to repeal the Jerusalem-Los Angeles relationship and to shun Jon Bruno, on the grounds that such a relationship will be seen as an endorsement of false teaching and sexual immorality and will lead the people of the Diocese of Jerusalem into error.
"Bishop Suheil refused, and I declared him excommunicated."
Walter then wrote to Bishop Muneer, Presiding Bishop of the Middle East, informing him of the excommunication, along with Bishop Suheil Dawani's reply and a letter of clarification from Bishop Riah.
Walter is a licensed priest from the Diocese of Pittsburgh and is jointly licensed by Jerusalem and Pittsburgh. (The Rt. Rev. Robert Duncan and the former bishop of Jerusalem and the Middle East both laid hands on him at his priesting in Amman.)
Matt Walter is the son of the Rev. and Mrs. Paul Walter of St. Louis, Missouri where the senior Walter is a priest with the Anglican Mission in America.
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